Friday Headlines

the weekly newsletter from Dr Ruth Weeks, Headmistress

Exciting plans in Senior School Library

19 January 2018

Our new Senior School Librarian, Miss Verity Jones, joined EHS at the start of the academic year. Here, Miss Jones shares with us some of the exciting activities and
developments that the girls have to look forward to over the coming months.

Library Update

It has been a whirlwind since I started here at Edgbaston; there has not been a dull day as we’ve just completed one jam-packed term and are launching right into the next.
There are events and changes on the horizon as the library gets louder and prouder in the school.

This all started in September and over the course of last term we have completed a major overhaul of how the books are arranged, we’ve held fascinating careers events here,
heard the work of the UK’s future authors from the Creative Writing Club, created displays, including a very special 3D Harry Potter one, and held library sessions to help the
pupils navigate the library’s new layout and meet me, their new librarian.

Author Visits

The term ahead promises to be a busy one. We have already welcomed two authors to school and there are two more visits planned. Lauren James, author of ‘The Loneliest Girl in
the World’ and The Last Beginning’ will visit in March to speak to girls in Year 9 upwards. She’ll be exploring how her Chemistry and Physics MA influences her writing and
showing us a presentation including examples of spreadsheets used to accurately calculate the figures involved in her writing, such as spaceship travel times and time travel
figures.

Years 4, 5, 7 and 8 are looking forward to a visit from Abi Elphinstone (pictured), author of ‘The Dreamsnatcher’ and ‘Sky Song’ on Thursday 1 May. An author who loves to
travel and collect things, Abi will be keen to show off her hand-carved catapult and sabre tooth for this event, talking about all the places she has visited. Abi is a keen
advocate of everyone writing so we are sure the girls will leave this talk buzzing and ready to go on some adventures of their own.

Coding Club

This term we are excited to announce the start of a new coding club. Any brave girls will be taking on either Python or HTML code through the ‘Code Combat’ system, a series of
games where you move, fight and problem-solve by coding! As you complete the game you’ll be writing more complex code and implementing innovative problem-solving.

Study Skills

Over the next month, I will be holding study skills sessions with Year7 pupils. We’ll be looking at referencing, plagiarism and the dreaded ‘Copy&Paste’. It will be fun (I
promise!) and hopefully we’ll see a little credit given each time the girls use someone else’s work.

Overdrive

The overdrive platform for e-books has been reinvigorated to include lists that will stretch older students too:

Eye Opening - A list that includes biographical, journalistic and expositional books, covering topics from North Korea to Artificial Intelligence.

Books that make you think - A list that has fictional books that challenge you, dystopian and controversial.

Award Winning - A list that has books from The Pulitzer prize, The Carnegie Award, The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and The Man Booker Prize, from the last 5-10 years.

World Book Day

The major event of this year will be World Book Day on Thursday 1 March. Surprises are in store and new books are guaranteed. It will be a day to fully appreciate all the
books we’ve read, enjoyed, can quote by heart, couldn’t put down and will suggest to everyone this year. We’ll be introducing competitions for all year groups and hopefully
this year will be the start of some new EHS traditions!

Edgbaston High School is easy to reach by public transport. Alternatively, areas including Solihull, Walsall, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, Streetly, Kinver, Stourbridge, Hagley and Halesowen are covered by the School's own minibus services or by private coaches organised by parents.